Finding Our Moynahan Ancestors In County Kerry, Ireland

This blog post is one of several that I hope will assist me in locating the townlands and parishes of my ancestors in Ireland. My brother, sister and I will be visiting Ireland and staying in Kerry in 2019.

Kerryman Matthew Moynahan

My 4th great grandfather Matthew Moynahan (1770-1860) emigrated from county Kerry in the 1820s with my 4th great grandmother Honora (O'Leary) Moynahan  (b. 1774) and Matthew died in Maidstone, Ontario in 1860. Matthew and Honora had six sons and three daughters in Ireland.

Burial record: 5 Feb 1860 (Maidstone, Ontario)
Source: Catholic Church Records, Drouin Collection (1747-1967)

William Foreman (1820-1900)

My husband's 3rd great-grandfather William Foreman (1820-1900) was born in England in 1820 

and emigrated to Ontario where he acquired 100 acres of land in Wellington County 

and lived as a farmer until the day he died.  

Immigrants Before 1865: Department of Finance - Emigration Service Fund

While searching the Library and Archives Canada collection of  Immigrants Before 1865, I came across an entry for Catherine Brennan on the "30th of September 1844; From Toronto to Sandwich" so I requested to see the document.

I later learned the good news that the LAC had digitized the records Department of Finance, Emigration service Fund (RG 19, volume 2532) and the digitized links had not yet been added to the LAC website.

The Department of Finance, RG 19 records involve the accounts for payment to teamsters and boat captains for transporting indigent immigrants to inland destinations by wagon or boat. It also includes receipts for making coffins. (Search this database here: http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/immigration-records/immigrants-before-1865/Pages/search.aspx)

Record item 740 for Catherine Brennan in 1844 

Source: Department of Finance, Emigration service Fund (RG 19, volume 2532)